


daring to want (freedom long-sought)

by tinycutefauna



Series: One Piece One Shots [10]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Adoption, Found Family, Gen, catch Whitebeard seeing a child and going ‘mine now’
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:28:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27205936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinycutefauna/pseuds/tinycutefauna
Summary: When Marco had first met Edward Newgate, he had lost himself almost completely and it was only thanks to him that Marco relearned a desire for living.-Aka the story where I spontaneously generate Marco backstory just so I can have Whitebeard adopt him
Relationships: Fushichou Marco | Phoenix Marco & Shirohige | Whitebeard | Edward Newgate
Series: One Piece One Shots [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1898179
Kudos: 53





	daring to want (freedom long-sought)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SoccerSarah01](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoccerSarah01/gifts).



> This was written for the prompt Marco + desire, given to me by Sarah. Thanks Sarah!
> 
> Uhh warning for Marco kinda being ready to die in a few places there - but nothing explicit and he regains his will to live!

When Marco had first met Edward Newgate, he had lost himself almost completely and it was only thanks to him that Marco relearned a desire for living.

He'd been born in the West Blue to a poor but loving family with a mother that worked two jobs just so she could spare enough money to buy him paper and ink and an older sister who patiently looked after him while their mother was away and wove baskets for selling. He himself was a non-fussy child and his maps of their island earned money from passing travellers. It had been a simple but good life and there was nothing he had longed for except maybe setting out to sea one day.

Then, one day, he found a strange fruit while picking fruit from their garden and tasted it to see if it was good enough to share with his family. It had tasted terrible and he had gained strange powers of healing with blue flames licking at his skin. His mother and sister hadn't cared though so neither had he - until some sort of sickness swept over the whole village and Marco soon found himself the sole survivor. He had been eleven and horrified.

He hid his age as he travelled with merchants, offering manual labour in exchange for food, finding that his strength had somehow greatly increased (perhaps due to the fruit). It worked until a few months when bandits randomly attacked one of the merchant ships he was travelling on. 

Unfortunately for him, they had heard of his strength and their leader knew about the fruit he had eaten. That was the first time he learned about how the world was much bigger than he had known.

Under seastone chains, he was forced to work day and night for years as the bandits grew wealthy through his ability to navigate until he was considering just throwing himself into the sea by the time they reached the Grand Line. That was when he met Edward Newgate.

Whitebeard was already known on the Grand Line for his great strength so he had been amused when some rookie crew challenged him when they crossed paths. For people who weren't even pirates, they were awfully brave, he thought. But he soon learned why.

Their leader went back inside their cabin to drag out a malnourished child with some of the tiredest eyes he had ever seen, wrapped in chains. Whitebeard knew cruelty and knew slavery and knew greed and the very air shook with his rage. The leader of the bandits looked terrified but he kicked forward the blonde child that he had grabbed and snarled at him to fight. Whitebeard was pleased to see that at least the child had enough life in him to stand up upon facing him and watch him warily. His spirit wasn't broken yet.

Whitebeard swept forward with his bisento in hand, shaking the small ship with every footstep, to grab the leader of the bandits and demand a key for the kid's chains. He was horrified when, as he approached, the child relaxed and closed his eyes as if waiting for death.

Whitebeard saw red.

A few minutes later found the bandits decimated in their entirety, the blonde child free from his chains and brought back to Whitebeard's ship as he watched the child slowly make his way through the food they had given him. It was clear to see that he was simply waiting to see what Whitebeard would do now. So Whitebeard asked him, gently, despite not even knowing his name, if he would like to be his son.

It brought him great joy when the child said yes.

-

When Marco had been brought out and all but _thrown_ at the gigantic man that the leader of the bandits had foolishly challenged, he knew he was no match for the strength that stood before him. The last few years had been a harsh lesson in what limits his body could withstand and the strength that was evident in the man standing before him clearly greatly overpowered his own. He stood ready to struggle if need be but mentally prepared himself for death.

He was relieved when the man moved towards them with all the intensity and surety of an earthquake because at least his death would be quick, and maybe even painless. He found himself feeling calm as he closed his eyes in wait. He hadn't dared desire anything in years but death sounded good right now.

He was so shocked when the man carefully moved past him that he didn't turn around for a moment. Apparently that was all the time the man needed to raise him and _shatter_ the air on the ship. Within seconds, the cabin and almost all the crew was gone.

Marco watched in awe as the man approached the leader of the bandits who was desperately pleading for mercy as he shakily tried to retreat. How much control did he have to be able to control his power (a strange power, perhaps another Devil Fruit, the first one he had seen since his own) enough to spare one part of the crew like that? It was satisfying to see him crush the bandit's body with one hand in the way that Marco had often dreamt of doing. If nothing else, he was grateful that the greatest source of his pain was now dead.

However, the man seemed to be on a mission as he searched the dead bandit's clothes for something. Marco watched, still frozen, as the man emerged with the key to his freedom. He couldn't make himself look away from it even as the man approached him again. All at once, the desire to be _free_ , to _live_ , to _sail_ overwhelmed him and he was choking on his emotions. It had been so long since he had last dared to dream.

The man ordered him to extend his arms and Marco did so, trembling, while tears tracked down his face. There was _hope_ in him, inextinguishable now, that stemmed from the man's kind eyes as large, powerful hands softly undid the chains that had been weighing him down for years.

Marco exploded in fire.

He hadn't meant to but all of a sudden, there were instincts that surged out and he gave into them freely, overjoyed to be able to act upon his desires for the first time in so long.

When he shook himself back into reality, he found that he had somehow transformed into a bird made of flames. A Phoenix, a corner of his mind whispered, the one that hungered for satisfying his curiosity and doing whatever he wanted to (the one he had carefully suppressed until now). It didn't faze the man at all as he gestured for Marco to follow him and introduced himself as Edward Newgate, captain of the Whitebeard pirates.

He was brought onto Whitebeard's ship where all kinds of men stared at him in open interest but didn't say anything as he followed Whitebeard inside. He transformed back into a human when Whitebeard bellowed for food and water. When he was presented with both, he began to carefully make his way through them. He couldn't remember the last time he had been given the choice to eat til he was fully and he relished the opportunity.

He wanted so much now. To try turning into a Phoenix again and see if he could fly. To try out more food and eat what he wanted to. To maybe draw maps again. To perhaps learn medicine because he had been thinking about it ever since he had lost his family and village.

He had been ignoring Whitebeard as he contemplated his future but he looked up when he heard Whitebeard speak again. "Child, would you like to join my pirate crew, become a pirate and be _free_?"

The answer came to Marco much more easily than he had thought it would, "Yes."

There was so much that he desired now and it seemed like he had found a place where he could pursue them.

After all, above everything else, there was one thing that he had wanted more than anything else for longer than he cared to admit. Freedom. And he had just been gifted it in the form of large hands, kind eyes and the grin that spread over Whitebeard's face when he had said yes.

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to reach out to me on Tumblr/Twitter anytime (I’m @tinycutefauna there too)
> 
> Kudos and comments (even just a <3) are always appreciated!


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